Packet’s Talent Pool Runs Deep

Pete Price, Barbara Fiske and Tom Simpson were looking for investors in Packet Engines who brought value beyond just money to the deal.

One of the things they say their investors have added is access to the industry’s talent pool.

“The firms we chose have quite a few relations with CFOs and CEOs and engineers they’ve worked with in the past,” Simpson says.

And they can help steer some of that talent toward their latest investment. That can be critical during a time when at least some of Packet Engines’ competitors will fail because they can’t hire the people they need to succeed.

“The labor market is so incredibly tight, and we have such an entrepreneurial boom in this country, that getting talented people is very difficult right now,” Simpson says.

But Price - Packet Engines’ vice president of finance and chief financial officer - and Fiske -the company’s vice president of business and legal affairs - are two examples of the success Packet Engines has enjoyed thus far in attracting talent.

Fiske was senior attorney at Intel Corp., living in Santa Clara, Calif., when she heard about Packet Engines.

During her career as a securities attorney in the Silicon Valley, she has done legal work for many start-ups.

She points to a crowded floor-to-ceiling bookcase on one wall of her office and says, “You see all these closing volumes from the various initial public offerings and private placements that I’ve done?

“I’ve been on the sidelines of start-ups for years, and I’ve seen the excitement of the people who are involved.”

So while it was hard to sell the house and leave friends, “When the opportunity came to come aboard for not only a start-up, but a start-up being put together by someone who had done it before and been so successful, it seemed like a reasonably good gamble to take,” she says.

Bernard Daines, Packet Engines’ founder, president and CEO, knew it would be a challenge to lure top talent from the world’s high-tech centers to Eastern Washington.

He might convince some, like Fiske, on the weight of his own considerable reputation. But he felt others, like Price, would be people who had left Eastern Washington to pursue high-tech careers, and wanted to return.

Price was Microsoft’s North American controller.

His wife was from Spokane, and they decided to return here early last year. She quit her own job at Microsoft. Price kept his and commuted by air from Seattle.

Price had tentatively explored the Spokane job market, but found nothing that could approximate his opportunities at Microsoft - until Packet Engines came along.

“I spent some time researching the company,” Price says, “and of course the Grand Junction thing came up. With that and Bernard’s reputation, I got very excited about it.”

Price had just received a promotion at Microsoft, but decided to make the switch anyway.

“At Packet Engines,” he says, “I had the chance to run a finance group end-to-end. I could be responsible for all the internal revenue and procurement systems, as well as working with the financing area external to the company. And the financial upside was outstanding.”

Both Fiske and Price see great opportunity in Packet Engines.

“That’s why I’m here,” Fiske says. “Packet Engines is uniquely situated for a start-up in this industry.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo